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Jared Bernstein
Member of the Council of Economic Advisors
Jared Bernstein is a member of the Council of Economic Advisors for President Biden. He served as the Chief Economist to then Vice President Joe Biden from 2009 to 2011 under the Obama Administration. Bernstein also served as Deputy Chief Economist for the Department of Labor under Labor Secretary Robert Reich from 1995-1996. Bernstein was a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a think tank that analyzes the impact of federal and state government budget policies.
On China
Bernstein has on multiple occasions expressed concerns for China’s “unfair trading practices, including currency suppression and the dumping of steel onto world markets,” but has criticized the Trump administration’s objection to voluntary intellectual property transfers. In his Washington Post commentary, Bernstein noted that “the intellectual property that Trump and his allies across the political spectrum want to protect belongs to major corporations like Boeing, Pfizer, and Microsoft.” “Protecting the copyrights and patents of multinationals makes them richer, while again, smoothing their path to producing abroad,” and hence such policy harms American workers. Consistent with this view, Bernstein proposed a tax policy that would stop incentivizing offshoring when talking about the Biden campaign’s economic plans during a September, 2020 interview and called it the “key” to take on China.
In a 2019 twitter thread, Bernstein wrote: “So, re China, I’d a) end the tariffs, b) punch back hard against currency devaluation, and c) beat them at their own game of investing in new sectors to claim global market share, starting with green tech. [end]” His New York Times article reiterated a similar position: “The way to compete with China on trade is neither sweeping tariffs nor the administration’s futile insistence that China change its fundamental economic model. It’s to enhance our own international competitiveness and provide real help to the people and places left behind by globalization.”
Notable Speeches, Testimony & Commentary
- “Could the tax code be used to take on China? Joe Biden and others think so,” Yahoo! Finance, September 2, 2020
- “Trump’s China Trade War Is Failing. Democrats Should Campaign Against It,” The New York Times, December 11, 2019.
- “What if China isn’t the trade scoundrel we say it is?” Jared Bernstein, The Washington Post, May 20, 2019
- “The problem — and consequence — of Trump’s trade war with China,” The Washington Post, May 13, 2019
- “The Effects of Tariffs on U.S. Agriculture and Rural Communities,” Testimony in front of the Committee on Ways and Means, Trade Subcommittee, July 18, 2018
- “A proposal to the incoming administration to lower the trade deficit,” The Washington Post, November 28, 2016
- “Testimony by Jared Bernstein, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities,” February 2, 2016
- “On the Economy,” Jared Berstein Blog
Page Last Updated: August 2, 2021
*None of the personnel in this tracker are associated with the Institute for China-America Studies. All images used on this page are sourced from the official Biden-Harris transition website buildbackbetter.gov or the public domain.*